Female sexual health after weight-loss surgery

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh measured the changes in sexual functioning and sex hormone levels in women following bariatric surgery. On average women reported significant improvements in overall sexual functioning.

Transcript

Norman Swan: Breastfeeding is supposed to reduce the risk of obesity, but last week the British National Health Service partially admitted defeat on obesity prevention. It was advised to provide weight loss, or bariatric surgery to a wider group of obese people than they have in the past. The reason was the reduction in the prevalence and severity of type II diabetes.

But another complication of obesity is sexual dysfunction in both women and men. The question asked in a study at the University of Pittsburgh was whether bariatric surgery improves the sexual health of women?

Nicholas Christian was one of the researchers.

Nicholas Christian: Prior to surgery we compared women who were seeking bariatric surgery with those women who were also obese but seeking lifestyle changes, modifications. And we found that about half of the women who were seeking bariatric surgery were reporting some type of sexual dysfunction. These women also had various symptoms of depression, they had trouble with their relationships, and greater impaired quality of life due to their weight. They also had greater trouble with physical functioning.

Norman Swan: You followed these women up at one year and two years after their bariatric surgery. So one and two years afterwards, how were they going?

Nicholas Christian: In terms of weight loss, participants lost about 33% of their initial weight about one year after the study, and that was pretty consistent two years after the study as well.

Norman Swan: And what happened to their sexual health, their hormone levels and their feelings about themselves and their relationships?

Nicholas Christian: Their overall sexual health, the results varied greatly by the participants. Some participants who were doing very poorly, who had very low sexual health prior to surgery, had a remarkable improvement following surgery. There were other participants who were doing at a fairly high sexual health, they too saw modest improvements. While there were still another group of people who were not doing very well prior to surgery and they didn't respond to surgery either.

Norman Swan: Was there anything you measured before they had the bariatric surgery which predicted whether or not they were actually going to get a big improvement in their sexual health?

Nicholas Christian: That's a great question. Right now we've just focused looking at the change following surgery on sexual health. Definitely the next step would be to look at who responds well to surgery.

Norman Swan: You measured the sex hormones, the hormones related to sexual health, before they had the bariatric surgery and after.

Nicholas Christian: That's correct.

Norman Swan: How did they change?

Nicholas Christian: For most of the hormones we looked at we saw dramatic improvements, one year after surgery as well as two years after surgery.

Norman Swan: And at two years was there any decline, had women slipped back? Those who had improved, had they slipped back at all or had they maintained their improvement?

Nicholas Christian: It seemed pretty consistent. We look at the change from year one to year two and we saw no difference.

Norman Swan: Was there anything in your data which told you why women improved? Was it because they felt that their body image was better, they felt more attractive, that their partners felt more attractive? Did you have any sense of why their sexual health improved?

Nicholas Christian: That's another great research question. Definitely next we should look at what's causing the change to figure out why some women had such a great change and others had a very modest to no change.

Norman Swan: In summary then, if a woman is going into bariatric surgery to improve their general well-being and their sexual health, it's not guaranteed that it's going to happen but there is a reasonable chance of it.

Nicholas Christian: At this time we would not be able to give a good answer indicating whether or not they would have successful improvement in their sexual health.

Norman Swan: So it's not guaranteed.

Nicholas Christian: Not guaranteed, no.

Norman Swan: Nicholas Christian of the University of Pittsburgh's Medical Centre in the United States.

Guests

Dr Nicholas Christian

BiostatisticianGraduate School of Public HealthUniversity of Pittsburgh